A 16-year-old student in Maryland has been arrested in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old fellow student in their high school bathroom, authorities said Saturday.
Jaylen Rushawn Prince is accused of firing a single shot at the young victim, Warren Curtis Grant, during an altercation in a bathroom at Joppatowne High School early Friday afternoon, according to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office.
Prince has since been charged as an adult with murder, assault, and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony/crime of violence, officials said. He’s being held in the Harford County Detention Center as he awaits his initial appearance in court.
The incident unfolded just after 12:30 p.m. in a first-floor men’s bathroom, Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said at a news conference.
After the shooting, Prince “left the bathroom [and] left the school,” Gahler told reporters.
“Other individuals in the school brought the victim out into the hallway, where he was immediately attended to by nurses as part of the public school system,” he added.
Grant was then air-lifted to a trauma center, where he later died.
Prince was arrested shortly after the shooting when area residents contacted authorities to report “a suspicious subject attempting to break into a house.”
He was taken into custody without incident just before 1 p.m., officials said.
The exact relationship between Prince and Grant, or what may have led to the fatal shooting, remains under investigation, though early information indicates the teens knew each other prior to the shooting.
The tragic incident came just two days after a 14-year-old high school student in Georgia was arrested in a mass shooting that left two students and two teachers dead.